The Management of Engineers and Planners has said a statement issued by the Environmental Protection Agency indicating that Exton Cubic Group Limited has no permit to mine bauxite at Nyinahini in the Ashanti Region is erroneous.
The EPA, on Wednesday, 23 August said: “As a result of the public interest in the matter, the EPA would like to clarify the position of Exton Cubic Group Limited’s environmental permit status under its mining lease (That is a necessary condition for any mining activity).
“The bottom line is that Exton Cubic Group Limited has not obtained the required EPA permit under its mining lease and, therefore, any attempt to enter the area for mining activity is illegal.”
Commenting on the issue, Communications Director for Engineers and Planners, subcontractors of Exton Cubic, Rafik Mahama said on Thursday that: “The statements from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Minerals Commission are flawed. Exton Cubic is not engaged in mining. They’re prospecting and the prospecting permit was issued by the EPA on 07/06/2016.
“It’s regrettable the two state institutions acted base on a Newspaper publication (Daily Guide). They should have visited the site and confirmed if any prospecting law was broken. Mind you, prospecting has been going on since 2016. The permit will expire in 2018. The PRO of EPA shouldn’t have acted based on hearsay. Exton Cubic has applied for the permit to start mining. The first letter was send to EPA on 29/03/2017 and a second request was sent on 18/07/2017 after EPA failed to respond to the March 29 letter. For that matter, it’s flawed for the EPA PRO to state that Exton Cubic failed to write to them for mining permit.”
It added: “Also, it’s flawed for the two institutions to asked Exton Cubic to stop mining because such thing is not happening. Exton Cubic is only prospecting and not mining. Mind you, the company has a prospecting permit from all the agencies last year and is due to expire in 2018. Exton Cubic has been cooperating with all the state institutions in the mining sector for almost 4 years now. It has complied with all the lay down processes leading to the granting of the Mining lease. Mind you, Minerals Commission will not give a Mining lease to a Company if you don’t submit your prospecting permit. This was done by Exton Cubic before the lease was granted. Also, the Forestry Commission granted the Exton Cubic forest entry permit after permits for due diligence and prospecting permit were granted by the EPA.
“E&P were subcontracted to work on the site. This is because, in that sector, E&P is the best we have in this country since 2005. E&P has a success story with Goldfields Ghana since 2002 to date. They also have a success story with ArcelorMittal in Liberia. Exton Cubic submitted a detailed plan on the Aluminum project/factory at Nyinahini before the Mining lease was granted. The Chiefs and opinion leaders at Nyinahin has been involved in the processes leading to the granting of the Mining lease. Mind you, all the three (3) traditional stools in the Nyinahin area were involved in the process and they were all satisfied with the mission and vision of the Exton Cubic Group Limited. We expect the various institutions and sector Ministers and the Regional Minister to amicably resolve the differences that arose as a result of communication lapses.”
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com
